Readers often seek refuge in the comforts of warm worlds with resourceful amateur detectives and unexpected adventures while often finding bonuses of recipes, book suggestions or other insights provided by the authors.
Some of these cozies add an additional element by including supernatural help in solving mysteries and the following are long-established and consistently enjoyable series which combine death with mystery in whole new ways.
Carolyn Hart and Bailey Ruth Raeburn
Carolyn Hart’s sassy red-haired amateur investigator is spirited in every sense, since she and her much loved husband passed away in a boating accident in the Death on Demand series.
Bailey Ruth Raeburn isn’t a ghost but is instead acting on the directions of the angels, trying to solve mysteries and protect the innocent without making her presence known. Bailey Ruth tends to recite the Prescripts but not necessarily follow them, resulting in several desperate pleas from her supervisor.
Still, Bailey Ruth knows how to read humans and keeps plenty of love and goodwill in her heart as she tries to do the right thing as she solves her cases. Her joie de vivre shines through in Ghost in Trouble, when Bailey Ruth returns to her native Adelaide, Oklahoma, and spends time with people that she knew years before.
Carolyn Hart mixes a healthy dollop of irreverence along with respect to create an enjoyable series of adventures featuring the unstoppable Bailey Ruth.
The Paranormal Detective Series by Nancy Atherton
Nancy Atherton’s The Paranormal Detective series features a modern American family whose move to a small English village allows the young wife, Lori Shepherd, to bond with her mother’s best friend, Dimity Westwood. Neither Lori nor Aunt Dimity concern themselves with the fact that Dimity has been long dead nor with their form of communication through an old journal in which Dimity’s blue inked writing magically appears.
Atherton effectively combines modern family concerns with the village’s history and bustling residents, giving the Shepherds an extended family with all of its inherent disagreements and questions of privacy.
The Paranormal Detective series works well for readers who enjoy fiction set in British villages and who prefer a minimum of malice or gore, while still fully engaging readers with believable characters and plenty of daily mysteries that keep the transplanted family entertained and bemused.
Alice Kimberley’s Haunted Bookshop Mysteries
In the Haunted Bookshop mysteries, bookstore owner Penelope, or Pen, relishes spending time in her bookstore in the quaint town of Quindicott, Rhode Island. Like many independent bookstores, Pen’s Bookmark has treasures, stories and secrets of its own, especially in the disembodied form of Jack, a private investigator who died in the 1940s.
Jack, echoing the Sam Spade-influenced lingo and demeanor made popular by hard-boiled detective novels, offers a counterbalance to Pen’s softer nature. Whether because of time spent together or forced proximity, Jack and Pen develop a respectful, trusting relationship which proves invaluable when Pen engages in amateur investigations.
Alice Kimberley, who also writes as Cleo Coyle, combines Pen’s contemporary life of bills, neighbors, and changing architecture with glimpses of how Quindicott used to be through Jack’s eyes. Jack’s advice and well-honed instincts give Pen an advantage and her own persistence and extensive knowledge make the unlikely team an effective one at solving crimes.
Death Doesn't Stop Detective Work
In each of these series, mysteries evolve beyond the routine with the help of those who have seen death first-hand and who are driven to solve crimes in the land of the living.
Bonnye Good - Bonnye Busbice Good received an Editor's Choice award for her article on Your Historic Home's Interior Design Secrets and has also written ...
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